The Bridges Of Madison County by Robert James Waller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has waited pretty long to get a review so, it's about time I gave it one! 'The Bridges of the Madison County' is not a pleasant read, not for everyone at least, because one might wonder while reading it that: is carnality what love is all about? Is physical union essential if you've found a soul-mate? Can't friends belonging to the same gender be soul-mates? Does a soul-mate necessarily have to be someone whom you HAVE TO get intimate with? Also, one wonders, as I did even while I was reading 'Riot' by Shashi Tharoor that is adultery really essential to create a love-story when one of the characters concerned is married and eventually finds a soul-mate in someone else?

No doubt the book is beautifully well-written and forces the reader to believe that it is actually based on a true story. The language is poetic and almost haunting. Perhaps the most haunting thing about the book is Robert Kincaid, who is a magnetically deep and charming character. But when we come to the character of Francesca...well, that's exactly where the problems begin from.

The fact that she has the courage to have a brief affair with a photographer while her husband and kids are away shows that her marriage is merely a sham, a lie that she has been living and that she is desperate to try anyone who is only slightly sympathetic towards her. Not because her family is cruel or because her husband doesn't love her but just because she thinks her marriage has lost the charm it once possessed. That kind of portrays her as a weak, shallow woman for whom love is synonymous with carnal desires. That she married a man she now claims to have no romantic feelings for, shows she was led by desire into this marriage. That she would have eventually left Kincaid, had she moved in with him, wouldn't have been a news to the reader either! Also, the fact that she decides to stay back not for the sake of love for her children or husband but what people would say if she left makes her all the more pathetic. It's not affection for her family that makes her stay but the unease about the fact that she would become the talk of the town and probably the insecurity of leaving a comfortable home and hearth that makes her stay back.

However despite the fact that the book is pretty much flawed in several places and is not altogether digestible, it has a certain charm which makes it, well not exactly a cherished novel, but a good read. Overall, 'The Bridges of the Madison County' is basically a fast-paced, best-seller kind of read with more to it than confused emotions and sheer adultery!




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